We went down to Melbourne last weekend because number two had a play being read, by professional actors under a professional director, at a very serious and proper theatre company!!!!! There is a festival of new writing where the theatre company picks three plays by emerging playwrights, who then get to choose a cast, director and dramaturg to work with, and then rehearse and read the play to an actual paying audience ... it is very competitive and an extremely big deal to be selected, and we are just bursting with pride for our incredibly talented and hard working child.
It sounds like it was an intense process of rehearsing, workshopping, LOTS of re-writing, agonising and collaborating .. but apparently that's what all plays go through even before the actors stand up and start moving about. The more I think about it the more in awe I am of this achievement - not just to write a whole play which is incredible enough - but then how exposed it must be as a writer to put your words out there and try and make them live! The arts, brutal. Anyway, I thought the play itself was fantastic: pacy, funny, emotional, true. I even coped with the sex scenes (just) and the autobiographical references ('not actually about me, mum').
It was lovely to see number two so excited and surrounded by friends, all super excited too. We stopped briefly for drinks afterwards (lots of squealing, that is why the photo above is so terrible) - introduced ourselves as the proud parents and got so many lovely comments - but we were definitely the old and uncool ones, as parents should be. I hope there is lots and lots of edgy theatre in our future, it was wonderful.
The weekend in Melbourne was interesting too - we took the opportunity to explore St Kilda and the bay, where we hadn't spent much time. It's not exactly one of the world's great beaches! But Melbourne continues to be cool, and we had some wonderful food.
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